Explore 9 Types

Discover Your Enneagram Type

Living Enneagram is path of personal development and spiritual awakening using the combined teachings of the Process Enneagram (9 stages in a universal process of transformation) and the Personality Enneagram (9 types of personality styles). Learning the map of our personality type is only just the beginning. Living Enneagram is about applying this ancient wisdom technology for better living today.
Trent J Thornley is developing the Living Enneagram approach. Read more about Trent below.

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About Trent

Trent is a Certified Professional with the International Enneagram Association. He is also an ACPE Certified Educator Candidate at UCSF Medical Center, where he uses the Enneagram to train chaplains and ministers and provide spiritual care to patients, families, and staff. He is an ordained Buddhist Dharma Leader at Dharmata Sangha, in the lineage of Anam Thubten, as well as ordained clergy in the progressive Metropolitan Community Churches. Trent holds a Certificate in Buddhist Chaplaincy from the Institute of Buddhist Studies and a masters degree in Buddhist Studies from the Graduate Theological Union. Trent was a practicing attorney for 20 years, most recently in trusts and probate. He has served as Judge Pro Tem on the San Francisco Superior Court and as a mediator.

Trent has a way of breaking down complex concepts and making them easily applicable to your life. His wisdom and insight has changed the way that I view my own motivations and thereby positively impacting my relationships. I highly recommend you go see him!

Here and there I come across people who are also interested in The Enneagram, but to my delight, I’ve finally found an AMAZING instructor in San Francisco who is as passionate about self-discovery and improvement via The Enneagram as me! TRENT IS THE BOMB! I am seriously excited to take my learnings to a deeper level. Highly recommend!!!

Trent is an amazing teacher and coach! He provided a wonderful new perspective for me to look at things I already knew quite a lot about. He brings a rich and broad knowledge into his work, plus a gentle yet very clear communication style.

After just ten minutes of speaking with Trent, I had so much insights into my relationship issues. I could so clearly see how I keep myself limited and also how there are alternative ways for me to thrive. My time with Trent was definitely well spent.

Trent offered a gentle and inviting space for me to become intimate with my own experience — a necessary ingredient for effective chaplaincy as well as self-growth. He embodies compassion and listens with a well attuned ear, demonstrating an uncanny ability to hone in on what’s most important in relation to our ultimate concerns. Without a doubt, he has helped me reach levels of clarity within myself which I could not have accessed alone. I highly recommend him.

This EnneaBit explores the binaries of each of the nine ennea-types. There are type-flavored either/or modes of perception, often unconscious, driving the sorting of sensory input. From these binaries are built whole worlds of projections.

The Main Sequence Star expresses qualities of the Type 3 – Point 3. This EnneaBit is part of the Cosmic Enneagram series, in which the lifecycle of a star is used as a metaphor illuminating the Enneagram.

The Pre-Main Sequence Star expresses qualities of the Type 2 – Point 2. This EnneaBit is part of the Cosmic Enneagram series, in which the lifecycle of a star is used as a metaphor illuminating the Enneagram.

This EnneaBit explores Enneagram patterns in the hit series ‘Mad Men.’ Don Draper runs a Type 3 personality, Peggy the Type 6, and Stan and Leonard, the Type 9. Three scenes in the final episode flow through the Enneagram’s inner triangle: 3 – 6 – 9.

The Molecular Cloud or Nebula expresses qualities of the Type 9 – Point 9. This EnneaBit is part of the Cosmic Enneagram series, in which the lifecycle of a star is used as a metaphor illuminating the Enneagram.

The Buddha’s Second Noble Truth of the threefold cause of suffering maps directly onto the Enneagram’s Law of Three. This threefold karmic movement is the Enneagram’s engine. This EnneaBit is part of a series presenting a Buddhist Enneagram.

Learn more about the Enneagram Head Center and the Points 5-6-7 through two sermons entitled ‘Twas Grace That Taught My Heart To Fear. The first is more Christian in flavor and references the esoteric nadir of the Enneagram. The second is more Buddhist in flavor.

I ran my Type Six patterns while a passenger on a hijacked airplane. Sixes are known for calm in a crisis because they imagine every hazard ahead of time. Sixes thus scare themselves to avoid feeling scared. Bonus: some Seven patterns show up as well.

Discovering your Enneagram Type can be a combination of “Uh-Oh!” and “Ah-Ha!” It is often a shock of recognition. This EnneaBit reflects on the type-related ways each type experiences its Uh-Oh & Ah-Ha moments. How did it happen for you?

Type Ones are known for finger wagging, and Bernie Sanders is likely a Type One. A fiery reformer, Sanders is running against another likely Type One: Hillary Clinton. Learn about the Democratic Party’s Integrity War.

Businesses and other organizations are increasingly using the Enneagram for better communication, efficiency and productivity. Enneagram coaching is an emerging force in the field of organization development.

Presenting the Buddhist Enneagram: a look at how the Buddha’s Second Noble Truth maps onto the Enneagram’s Law of Three to generate the 9 ennea-types. This EnneaBit explores some esoteric aspects of the Enneagram.